By Callum Ludwig
Former Healesville High School principal Ion Whykes passed away suddenly recently, with a flood of tributes coming in for him.
Mr Whykes has been described as a passionate, generous and dedicated visionary.
Current Healesville High School Principal Allan Rennick almost without a doubt, Mr Whykes is the most influential figure in the life of Healesville High School.
“He was a transformative principle, under his leadership there was a time of intense growth. He grew the school from a reasonably small country school to a thriving outer metropolitan school,” he said.
“He had a significant presence as a person and was an innovative thinker. He was a strong leader, students and staff certainly knew what was expected, and knew the boundaries of what was acceptable and what was not.”
The Rotary Club of Healesville posted a tribute to Mr Whykes, who was the Charter President and an active member for more than 45 years. Mr Whykes had received a Paul Harris Fellow pin with three Rubies, the highest award one can receive in Rotary.
Mr Rennick said that Mr Whykes introduced significant curricular and physical changes at Healesville High School.
“He introduced what he called the vertical modular curriculum, where students could do subjects above their year level, which was a very innovative thing to do in the 70s and 80s. It drew immense interest from around the state and people would come and see what it meant and what it achieved,” he said.
“The physical changes that happened around the school were significant in his 19 years, he was instrumental in the funding of the construction of our Education Community Activity (ECA) Centre, which has been and still is widely sued by the community and groups. He also oversaw and led the development of the 25-metre indoor pool, the Jack Holt Memorial Pool, and the school library.”
The Healesville Fire Brigade and HICCI also paid tribute to Mr Whykes citing his generous donations and support.
Mr Rennick said Mr Whykes was an incredibly generous man, supporting students and staff emotionally and financially.
“Most of his financial support was done very quietly. In my time as principal, he would continue to call and ask if we needed money for anything, predominantly in supporting the arts and would only acknowledge his company for it,” he said.
“He’s been very supportive of me in my role, just just with a little bit of guidance and advice along the way, he would never come in and say ‘You should be doing a lot this’ or ‘You’ve done that the wrong way,’ it was always gentle guidance.”
Mr Whykes would consistently sponsor the Healesville High School production, and the Performing Arts Centre at the school has been named after him for some time. There are speculative plans in the works to create a scholarship for students and/or staff in his honour.
Mr Whykes was also the President of the Victorian High School Principals Association in 1986 and remained President of what became known as the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals in 1987 and 1988 when high schools and tech schools amalgamated.
